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A 'lil HooHaa

Messing with the blogging world since 2005

baseball research

HooHaa 9: John McGuinness

September 9, 2011

The original docket showing the burial of John McGuinness at Patrick’s Cemetery in Johnson City, N.Y.

I’m calling this the curious case of John McGuinness.

He who appeared to be a cigar packer in his later years, following a short professional baseball career. He, who born in Ireland sometime in 1957, came to the United States at some point, played baseball and later lived in Binghamton, New York.

John J. McGuinness

He died in 1916, pending where you look. Finding information on him, outside of his baseball statistics, has proven to be quite difficult.

McGuinness is the next draftee on the HooHaa 9, a team made up of obscure baseball players from the 1800s and the early 1900s.

I came across him when searching for players to sponsor on Baseball-Reference.com. I did a search for Irish-born players and came across him. To make it better, he had the name McGuinness. I couldn’t go wrong with someone who had “Guinness” as part of their name, could I?

Further, he was buried in St. Patrick Cemetery in Johnson City, which isn’t too far from me.

But McGuinness became more than a quick research topic for me. He’s become a bit of an obsession. There’s no telling when he was born in 1857. Heck, he might have been born in 1856. Or 1858. When did he come across the big pond to the states? It’s a tough thing to pin down as the name “John McGuinness” was a more-than-common name in that time period (as I’ve discovered with my research).

Here are some of the things I do know:

He died in Binghamton on Dec. 19, 1916. He was interred at St. Patrick’s on Dec. 23, which happened to be 10 days after his daughter, Elizabeth, was buried.

Family interment records.

The family plot also contains a Mrs. J.J. McGuinness, who was buried on Dec. 22, 1902. Also buried there is Robert E. McGuinness, who was buried on Aug. 1, 1935. He’s the lone member of the family with a headstone, though there appears to be remnants of others at the plot. According to the obituary for John J. McGuinness, Robert is his son.

Some notes have put Elizabeth as his wife, but according to an obituary, it is, indeed, his daughter. This does seem to have a bit of confusion, however, as the owner/director (Robert L. McDevitt) of the funeral home that handled the McGuinness bodies sent this as part of a letter to baseball historian Bill Haber on Jan. 21, 1980:

Our records indicated that subject individual was born (1857) in Ireland — died December 19, 1916 (9:45 p.m.) at his residence, 5 River Terrace, Binghamton, New York. The record of his baseball career was not required and not requested y us. Additionally, Mr. McGuinness was pre-deceased by his wife (Elizabeth P. McGuinness) on Dec. 10., 1916.

Further, the letter goes on to state that the funeral arrangements were made by “their” daughter, Mrs. Frank J. (Mary H.) Mangan. Mrs. Mangan died March 23, 1953, in Syracuse.

McDevitt, however, was going based on records at the funeral home. Though he states that the records are extremely well kept, there might not have been a full connection between Elizabeth and John in the records.

Haber also contacted the Binghamton Public Library and received a letter back on October 31, 1979, which gave him the obituary of McGuinness.

JOHN J. MC GUINNESS died last night at 10 o’clock at the home of his daughter, Mrs. Frank Mangan, 5 River Terrace, after a week’s illness. His daughter, Mrs. Elizabeth McGuinness, died one week ago. He is survived by his daughter, Mrs. Frank J. Mangan; one son, R. Emmitt McGuinness, and a sister, Miss Anna McGuinness of Brooklyn. Mr. McGuinness was formerly a well known athlete and played first base on the old Cricket baseball team. He was a member of the Kingston Council of the Knights of Columbus, the Elks of Kingston and of Branch 74 of the C.K. of A. The funeral will be held Friday morning at the home at 9:30 o’clock at 10 o’clock at St. Patrick’s Church. Burial will be at St. Patrick’s Cemetery.

This would somewhat go a little more on par with city guides from that time period. The 1899 Williams’ Binghamton City Guide shows John, Emma M. Mrs. (possibly his wife) and Mary all living at 134 Front St.

His name has been misspelled quite a bit, most commonly as “McGinnis.” There are misspellings on his interment record for the cemetery as well.

The Anthony Publishing Co.’s Standard City Directory of Binghamton 1893-1894.

This fact comes into an interesting play in the The Anthony Publishing Co.’s Standard City Directory of Binghamton 1893-1894. John J. McGinnis – a cigar packer — is listed at 99 Clinton. On the opposite page, a Mrs. J J McGuinness — a sales lady — is also listed at 99 Clinton.

The reality is that when dealing with records from the 1800s and early 1900s, a lot of items can be hard to figure out.

So let’s take a closer peek at John J. McGuinness. …

Born in 1857 (maybe), McGuinness, obviously, came across the ocean at some point. He eventually landed in the Binghamton, NY area. Though it’s not fully known when. I have uncovered some Binghamton city directories from the early 1880s and he’s listed there as a cigar packer. I’m quite sure these are him considering his occupation, on his death certificate, show him being a cigar packer.

Before delving into his baseball career, however, it’s interesting to figure this out — when was he born.

1900 Census

Thanks to items on ancestry.com, I came across the 1900 Federal Census for Broome County and came across John McGuinness. I am thinking, with all the other things that I found, that this is the right John McGuinness as “Emma” is listed as his wife, his daughters include Bissi (Elizabeth?) and Mary and a son Robert E.

The interesting part?

He’s listed as being born in March of 1856. AND he’s listed as a cigar packer!

The confusing part continues, however, as his name is noted as “Mcginness.” The handwriting on the census list is hard to read, so it can easily be construed as something else. It’s quite an interesting peek, though, and might be the first true piece of info that shows when Mr. McGuinness may have really been born.

Don’t think it gets easier, however.

In the 1910 census, John is now listed as an estimated birth year of 1860. But he’s in the same household with Robert and Elizabeth, who are listed as brother and sister. Also in the house are Frank and Mary Mangan and their kids. This would seem to show their family tree as it seems to be pretty much on par with the obituary.

Going back a bit more, the US Census in 1880 shows a McGuinness family in Norwich, with John (about 1859 birth year) as the son. In 1880, John is listed as 21 on the census report. That could be the same person as it’s near Binghamton and the age differential could be about right, considering it seems like John might have been born anywhere from 1856-1860.

IF this is the same one, then his father would have been James. The only major issue here is that John and his sister on this report are both listed as being born in the United States. And, his sister is Jennie. There is a blank spot, as if room for another, but nothing is seen.

Finally, looking at the 1870 census, this same household is in Norwich. There is James and Mary (the parents) and then Jane, Ann and John. With the writing in the 1880 census, Jane/Jennie/Janie could definitely be confused. The age gap here goes on the 1859 birth year sort of thing for John, however. Ann is listed as age 16.

Again, however, the kids are listed as being born in New York.

There are some dots that connect that make me believe that this is a possible match. On John’s death certificate, his mother is listed as Mary, with the maiden name of Cassidy.

Life in baseball

He played three years in the “Major Leagues,” — 1875, 1879 and 1884. It also appears he played some minor league ball in the missing years, but just one — Utica in 1879 — shows any statistics.

Mainly a first baseman throughout his career, it isn’t known if McGuinness threw or bat left- or right-handed. He’s listed as being 5-foot-10, 150 pounds.

He made his debut in the big leagues in 1876, playing one game for the New York Mutuals of the National League. He went 0-for-4 in the game. The team finished in sixth place in the league that year with a 21-35 record.

He returned to the majors in 1879, playing for the Syracuse Stars, also of the National League. The team finished 22-48 that season and McGuinness played in 12 games, finishing 15-for-51 (.294) with seven runs scored, a double, triple and four RBIs. He struck out six times

His fielding was so-so as he had a .928 fielding percentage. He had 125 chances and had 113 putouts, three assists, nine errors and was part of eight double-plays.

McGuinness played his final major league season in 1884 with the Philadelphia Keystones of the Union Association. The team went 21-46 and placed eighth in the league. McGuinness saw a lot more playing time, appearing in 53 games.

The long season appeared to have taken a toll on McGuinness as his batting average was a paltry .236 (52-for-220). He eight doubles, a triple and five walks. No strikeouts were apparently recorded, however.

He played 48 games at first base that season and had a fielding percentage of .959. In 586 chances, he had 550 putouts, 12 assists, 24 errors and took part in 19 double plays. The games played at first, putouts and assists were each  ranked fifth in the league.

His minor league playing days included stints with Binghamton Cricket of the League Alliance (1877), Utica of the International Association (1878), the Utica Pent Ups of the National Association (1879) and the Binghamton Bingoes of the New York State League (1885). He also served as manager of the 1879 Utica team.

For that Utica team, which is the only year in the minors where his statistics were kept, he hit 28-for-91 (.308) with 17 runs. Those numbers might have been what got him to Syracuse that same season.

Beyond baseball

After baseball, it appears that McGuinness settled into his life as a cigar packer in Binghamton. According to the various city guides, he seemed to move around from year to year.

Death certificate for John J. McGuinness

He was at the home of his daughter when he died, if I am reading his death certificate right. The writing is hard to read, but it appears he died of pneumonia, though there is a secondary thing mentioned. It’s something with his heart, though I can’t read the first word (it starts with P).

It’s likely that many of the connections with John McGuinness will never be confirmed. The Hall of Fame has a letter on file from John Mangan, dated January 30, 1980. In it, Mangan said that he would have been 5 when McGuinness died and that Mary Mangan would have been an aunt by marriage.

He notes that he spoke  with Frank J. Mangan, who would have been a grandson to McGuinness, and neither of them had any strong recollection of McGuinness. At this point (so more than 30 years ago), he said he believed there were several children of McGuinness’ son, Emmett. However, they did not know where they were located.

Robert E. McGuinness was buried in the family plot on August 1, 1935 according to the cemetery records. His headstone shows he was born in 1890. In the 1900 census, he’s shown as being born in October of 1887, but being 11 years old. As we’ve seen, these dates can be very hard to pin down in some cases.

Grave of Robert E. McGuinness

But, either way, Robert E. (Emmett) would have had to had children before 1935. That would put them in their 80s or 90s now, if they are still alive. There is a chance that maybe a great-grandchild of John McGuinness is still alive and maybe they would be able to fill in a few details. Who can tell as they likely would have been born after Robert had already died, as his death came at a young age.

This case is definitely curious. If anyone out there has more info, drop me a comment or e-mail me. I’d be interested to hear more. More than likely, however, a lot of these lines will never be completed, though that’s what makes research like this fun and interesting.

To see the closeups of the documents in this blog post, you can click on them. You can see everything I have by checking out the baseball research set I have on my blog’s Flickr account.

Sources used:

Files from the National Baseball Hall of Fame Library, including letters and death certificate.

Ancestry.com

Baseball-Reference.com

Baseball-Reference.com John McGuinness page

Baseball-Reference Bullpen page on John McGuinness

Baseball-Reference.com minor league page on John McGuinness

Feel free to leave a comment, or e-mail P.J. at hoohaablog [at] gmail.com. Also, please “Like” HooHaa Blog on Facebook by clicking the button on the right side of the page!

Filed Under: Baseball, HooHaa 9, My world, Sports Tagged With: baseball, baseball hall, baseball hall of fame, baseball history, baseball research, binghamton ny, binghamton ny baseball players, elizabeth mcguinness, emmett mcguinness, hoohaa 9, john j mcguinness, john mcginness, john mcginnis, johnson city ny, joihn mcguinness, national baseball hall of fame, research, st patricks cemetery, st patricks cemetery johnson city ny

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Look for more on the HooHaa 9 soon!

August 28, 2011

Several weeks ago, I unveiled the HooHaa 9, a personal baseball project.

Basically, the gist of it is that I have sponsored certain pages on the website Baseball-Reference.com. Alas, the popular players are now going up for premium prices. For example, I have had Philadelphia pitcher Cole Hamels’ page sponsored since it became available. Last year, it cost $30.But if I want to continue sponsoring it this year?

$305.

Yikes! That’s up from the $265 it would have cost me when I started this project!

As much as I love that website and as much as I want to be able to sponsor pages to help support the site, that’s a little rich for my blood. Even if I was gainfully employed with a well-paying job, I’m not sure I’d dump that kind of money on a sponsorship. I just don’t get enough hits from my link there to justify it.

I’ll enjoy having Cole’s page through the postseason this year and then move on.

That being said, because I use the site a ton, I like to give back. I realize it costs money for them to host and run a site of that magnitude, so I don’t mind giving some money back to the cause. That’s when I got discussing it with my friend Jerry, who noted he sponsors a cheaper player — Hal Manders.

That’s where the HooHaa 9 originated from.

I set out to find obscure ballplayers whose pricetag on the B-R site was no more than $2 or $5. I figured at that rate, I could afford to sponsor several. I knew, too, that if I decided to sponsor these pages I would turn them into blog posts.

My virtual team was born!

The HooHaa 9 is a name based off old-school baseball. Considering I am going to be sponsoring older players — obscure ones at that — I took on an older sounding name. The logo I put together is also an older-looking type logo.

The goal of this project is to sponsor at least 9 low-priced players to fill up a baseball team. These players could have been picked for one of several reasons — they have local ties, they have a cool name, they originally came from Ireland, or they played for the Phillies at some point. The majority of these players had short careers — five years or fewer — and likely played in the 1800s or early 1900s.

That makes the research hard.

I’ve done one of these already in Sleeper Sullivan. He’ll be the catcher on this squad.

To follow up on that, I have done some research on other players. I spend a few hours at the Baseball Hall of Fame Library doing some research and getting copies of other players. I have, at this point, eight pages sponsored. Most of them were quite cheap (one was $10, but there is a reason I’m willing to pay that). There are two others I will likely get, in time, who are $10 each. That will put me up to 10 players.

However…

Even with some of these guys who have played several positions, I am still short a second baseman and shortstop. I have a couple of pitchers and an extra outfielder. (I need some reserves, just in case, no?) So I’ll be in the endless search to find a few cheap players out there to fill those spots. And I’ll see if some of my extras are listed at those spots as I’d rather have fewer players so I can have an “Iron Man” team.

I even sponsored a manager and some of the things I dug up on him should make for an interesting story, too. Every team needs a manager, no?

My goal will be to release at least one player per week until the team is full. I have a lot of info on several of them, so I am going to get working on them some. There might be weeks where I release two of them. Who knows? It all depends on how the information flows etc.I won’t list any of these players, however, until I post the blog.

Those of you who are baseball fans, if you have any people I should consider for this project, let me know in the comments below. Just remember the guidelines I have for these players!

I hope those of you who are baseball fans will enjoy these posts. I’ve found some wonderful things about these players and have scanned some interesting items that I will put into the blog posts as well. Feedback, as always, will be appreciated!

Feel free to leave a comment, or e-mail P.J. at hoohaablog [at] gmail.com. Also, please “Like” HooHaa Blog on Facebook by clicking the button on the right side of the page!

Filed Under: Baseball, HooHaa 9, My world Tagged With: baseball, baseball hall of fame, baseball research, hoohaa 9, hoohaa9 base ball club

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Notes from my noodle: August 22 edition

August 22, 2011

I like disc golf.

Seriously, it’s a good time and good exercise. Case in point? By my pedometer’s count, I walked 5.1 miles playing 36 holes in a tournament Sunday afternoon. Anyone who thinks that’s not exercise needs to really define the word. It’s said that 30 minutes of walking per day helps your health. I did that and then some.

But this isn’t about the argument of whether or not disc golf constitutes exercise. This is about how a fun game can turn sour in a hurry.

See, when you are in tournaments, you don’t have control over a lot of things — weather, playing partners etc. You have to go with the flow. Still, the hope is to keep the game fun and entertaining. Without those last two pieces, a tournament — and the game — become dragging and not something I want to do.

So this tournament I played in Sunday…

It’s on a course I really like. I’ve shot well here and though I knew I stood no chance of winning my division, I set a goal of not finishing dead last in the division and the tournament. Anything else would be gravy.

The first round I got paired with three people in a different division. That’s fine, but it was tough because they were playing from the blue (longer) tees and I was playing from the white (shorter) tees. That basically meant that no matter how well I shot, I wasn’t going to get to be first on the tee if I got the lowest score because I was on a different tee.

I didn’t have an issue playing with the guys I was paired with. They were all cool to deal with and good players. But, for someone like me, that’s a little intimidating. They know a lot more. They do a lot more. The score a lot better. It’s tough when paired with people like this because newer players (such as myself) can watch and get lost in it all.

And it can’t be any better for those guys as they shoot 15-20 strokes better than me.

The hardest part was when we walked up to the white tees and sometimes they’d continue on before I’d say something. I don’t blame them either — they are playing from those tees, watching their shots, knowing what they have to do etc.

But for me, it made it harder because I didn’t want to slow them down or “hurt” their game. So I rushed at times, got stupid at others. All because I was worried about other things. The reality was that I wasn’t going to place in my division. Those guys could win theirs. It stunk, to be honest. I felt bad and I played worse. (To be fair, the thunderstorm that rolled through and soaked us didn’t help my misery, either).

I shot an 83 on a course that I hadn’t been out of the 70s on in quite a while.

The second round was a different story. I played with people from my division. People playing from the white tees. We played as quick as we could, had fun and all scored near the same. It was enjoyable. We joked, we chatted and didn’t worry. I wasn’t worried about screwing somebody’s game up. I was loose and enjoyed the round.

End result? A 72.

I truly understand that tournaments are hard to organize, run and do. I’ve done them in many sports. I’ve run leagues and tournaments and all sorts of things. So I can empathize. People who didn’t pre-register can also put a wrench in the spokes. And many tournaments I’ve played in do the same thing in the opening round — mix up players in different divisions. But it seems unfair to put a recreational/novice player with those who are really good. At least put two people playing from the whites in with a couple from the blues. That would make it a little less nerve-racking — for both sets of people.

I don’t know if my play had any effect on the three better players. But I know it did on me because of several factors. It wasn’t the company — I enjoyed the three others. In fact, I think a casual round with the three of them would be fun and educational, in regard to disc golfing. But in a tournament? It was tough.

In the end, it was OK. My 11-stroke differential between rounds earned me a $25 gift card to a sports store for best improvement. So add that to the disc I got for playing and two rounds of competition for my $20 fee, and I can’t complain. But, it’s food for thought.

For those of you who might read the blog and are disc golfers — give me your thoughts and experiences in the comments below. I’d love to hear what you think about these things.

***

As you may know, I’m in the midst of a small personal project on the blog with my research of obscure baseball players.

I’ve picked out a half-dozen or so that I am going to start digging into and getting information on. I’m going to head up to Cooperstown and the National Baseball Hall of Fame to visit its library and find what I can on these players.

I’m hoping I can connect some dots as for some of these players, all I have is what I can find on baseball-reference.com. Hopefully, there will be a few things I can add to the numbers from this trip to the Hall.

***

It’s time for me to come up with a better way of storing memory cards after switching them out of my camera.

I went to the county fair Saturday and took a small memory card full of photos, many of which were really cute photos of a friend’s daughter. When I got home and was ready to move them from the card to my external hard drive, I couldn’t find the card.

Panic set in.

I looked through all of my pockets and everything else. The camera bag, my memory card pouch — everything. And nothing found.

I had put the card in my pocket when switching out and I had no idea what happened. My only thought was that I dropped it at the fair (in one of two places) or in the street at my friend’s house when getting in my car.

He went out and checked at his house. Nothing.

I went searching again and found a bag I had in my pocket. The card somehow ended up in there. My panic ended. That made me realize that I need to come up with a memory card holder to be able to switch out when needed. I don’t ever want to go through that again!

Any of you photographers have any suggestions for a good pocket-sized memory card holder?

***

Speaking of disc golf, as I did earlier in this post, I received an interesting package in the mail.

It was my renewal for my PDGA (Professional Disc Golf Association) membership. What’s odd about that is that I didn’t renew because my membership doesn’t end until Dec. 31, 2011. And if I was going to renew, I would do it after Oct. 1, when it would give credit for next year. Even with that, it wouldn’t make sense. I hadn’t planned on renewing until the end of the year, when it needed to be done.

Last year, when I signed up, I did it after Oct. 1, so it was for the end of 2010 and all of 2011. When I did that, I got all of the perks and membership stuff. It also included the 2010 member card, which showed my membership expiring on Dec. 31, 2011.

Then the package came today.

I didn’t know what had happened. So, I called them.

Turns out that when I signed up in October, I got all of the 2010 items and then would eventually get the 2011 items. Apparently today is that eventually. At least it all makes sense now!

***

I have some things in the works for future blog posts. I have e-mailed Bill Walker — Skywalker in hiking circles — and will be talking to him soon for a post or two on the blog about his adventures in thru-hiking. I have already previewed one of his books on the site and will be reading his second one, soon.

That also gave me an idea.

I have followed several people through their trail journals this year in regard to hiking the Appalachian Trail. Some finished, some didn’t. I am going to reach out to several of them in the hopes of interviewing them for a post on the blog. I’d like to get both sides, too, so it shows why some people need to leave the trail, how hard it is to finish it or not etc.

I’m going to try and correlate them so I can do all of them over a two-week period (including the Walker stories), maybe going every other day or so — that way not going too overboard with the hiking stories! But I think in the end, it will show a compelling picture of what people have to go through on the hikes. It’s my hopes that I’ll be able to get a few photos from each, too, to be able to help all of you paint a picture of what they go through when they do hikes like this.

Feel free to leave a comment, or e-mail P.J. at hoohaablog [at] gmail.com.

Filed Under: Baseball, Cameras, Disc golf, Hiking, My world, Notes from my noodle, Photography Tagged With: appalachian trail, baseball research, bill walker, camera memory cards, disc golf, disc golf tournament, discs, exercise, frisbee golf, frolf, hiking, losing memory cards, memory cards, obscure baseball players, pdge, photos, pictures, professional disc golf association, research, research on baseball, skywalker, thru-hiking, tournament

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HooHaa 9: Sleeper Sullivan

July 27, 2011

Who is Sleeper Sullivan, you may ask?

Until the other day, I had never heard of Sleeper Sullivan. Turns out he was a professional baseball player in the 1800s.

Before I get into Sleeper Sullivan, however, let me give you a backstory.

If you are a fan of baseball statistics, you’ve likely heard of or have been to the website Baseball-Reference. It’s an amazing tool to be able to look up so many items on the game. Statistics, results and pretty much anything you can think of when it comes to baseball numbers.

Over the years, I’ve sponsored pages — which is a way to give the site money as support and in return, get something on the site for you. A message, a link, whatever.

I’ve had players such as Shane Victorino, Pat Burrell, Tom Brookens and Larry Christenson, among others. One thing about the site is that the page price is based on hits and such. I got lucky the year Cole Hamels was a rookie and nabbed him for $10. I’ve held onto him since, paying no more than $40 one year for him. Last year, he dipped to $30.

He comes up for renewal in late October. If I were to renew now, it would cost me $265, which seems grossly high, especially seeing as I paid $30 for him last October.

Now, I don’t know how it works in regard to pricing. Maybe that’s because it’s an early thing? Who knows. I’ll see come late October how much it’s going to cost me. If it’s $265, I’m going to have to say goodbye to Cole’s page, which is something I had hoped to avoid. I wanted to keep him through his entire career (especially if he stayed with the Phillies). Alas, even if I had a high-paying job, I wouldn’t be paying $265 to sponsor a page. I don’t get many clicks to my blog from Cole’s page, so that would be a terrible investment. Instead, the page will likely be scooped up by one of the larger sites that try and grab team players etc.

Still, I like to give back.

The other night, I had a chat about this with a friend, Jerry. A fellow baseball guy and someone who runs an interesting Hofstra blog over at Defiantly Dutch noted that he sponsors a cheaper player — Hal Manders.I think he said he paid $2 or $5 per year for this fellow.

So I set out in search of a new person to sponsor, just in case Cole prices himself out of my range (hey, I feel like a small-market blog… I can’t afford the big players!)

Thomas Jefferson Sullivan, a catcher and right fielder who was nicknamed “Old Iron Hands,” was born in Ireland in 1859. In my search for info on Sleeper Sullivan, I’ve yet to find out an actual date or town he was born in. A righty thrower and batter, Sullivan stood 5-foot-7 and weighed 175 pounds. He debuted in 1881 and played through 1884.

Sleeper Sullivan

When I found this fellow, I knew I had the person I needed to sponsor — and he was only $5.

But several hours of research has turned up not much on this man. I know that he is listed as dying on Oct. 13, 1909 in St. Louis, Mo., at the age of 50. He’s apparently buried at Calvary Cemetery in St. Louis. However, when you look at his page on Find A Grave, it shows his date of death as Sept. 25, 1899 in Camden, N.J. I tend to lean with the baseball date as most major baseball sites have that same date, and I would think that someone dying in 1899 in Camden wouldn’t likely be moved to St. Louis to be buried. I could be wrong, but for now, I’d go with the death listed on the baseball sites.

I wanted to request a photo of Sleeper’s grave on Find A Grave, but apparently I can’t. I’m not sure if it’s because he’s listed as “famous” person or something else, but the option isn’t there as it is with other people listed on that site.

So what do we know about Sleeper?

According to Baseball-Reference, he played four seasons in the “majors,” one with the Buffalo Bisons (National League), parts of two with the St. Louis Brown Stockings (American Association) parts of one with the Louisville Eclipse (American Association) and one with the St. Louis Maroons (Union Association).

He played in 97 games, hitting a whopping .184 (64-for-347) with seven doubles and four triples. He finished his big-league career with a zero home runs. He had 15 RBIs for Buffalo in 1881, but RBIs aren’t listed for his other years, so I’m not sure if they were kept as a statistic or not.

He did score 39 runs.

Old Iron Hands pitched in one game as a 25-year-old with the Maroons in 1884. He went 1-0 with a 4.50 ERA, pitching six innings. He gave up six runs (three earned) on 10 hits. He struck out three and walked none.

Of 99 games played in the field, he caught 90 of them. He had 82 errors in 551 chances for a stellar .851 fielding average (I think we know where the Old Iron Hands comes from…). Yes, 82 errors! Now, I realize that these guys didn’t have top-of-the-line gloves, but still…

In 16 chances in the outfield, Ol’ Sleeper had four errors for a .691 fielding percentage. Heck, he even found a way to commit an error in his one game as a pitcher and had a .750 fielding percentage.

Mix it all together and Iron Hands had a career fielding percentage of .847.

During his career, he did appear on some leader boards. He was fourth in games as a catcher in 1882 (51), fourth in putouts as a catcher in 1882 (232), fifth in assists as a catcher in 1882 (46) and third in errors as a catcher in 1882 (53). Oh yeah, he was also second in passed balls that same year with 97!

Not much else seems known about Sleeper Sullivan.

The bullpen part of Baseball-Reference shows a few tidbits about Sullivan:

The Buffalo Express of March 3, 1881, carried an article about Sullivan’s arrival in Buffalo. The article stated he was of medium height and had played ball for four years.

His minor league career ran through 1892, when he played for Rochester, a team on which he and Ed Swartwood both played.

Baseball-Reference has some of his minor league stuff and it looks like he played a little better in the lower levels of professional baseball. In 1887, he played with two teams — Reading and the Danbury Hatters. Combined, he hit .311 (87-for-280) with six doubles and a home run. He didn’t catch, however, in that season. He played shortstop in 60 of 62 games that he played in the field. There are no stats, so we’re not sure how Old Iron Hands did.

There are no stats available, but he also played for the following minor league teams: Lowell Ladies Men (1877), Evansville Red (1877), Lynn Live Oaks/Worcester (1878), Dubuque Red Stockings (1879), New York Metropolitans (1881), Meriden Silvermen (1886), Hartford Dark Blues (1886), New Haven (1889), Wilmington Blue Hens (1890), Newark Little Giants (1890), Lynn (1891), and the Rochester Flour Cities (1892).

The thing I find interesting is how he seemed to average two teams per season. I imagine it’s probably something where one ended and he could go to another? Not sure, but it’s interesting.

I can’t seem to find much more on Sleeper. However, I’m now a proud sponsor of his page on Baseball-Reference. I hope to, at some point this summer, visit the National Baseball Hall of Fame Library to research a few things. If I get a chance to do that, I’ll look to see if I can do some research on Sleeper Sullivan, too.

Just remember — don’t mess with Old Iron Hands!

See what Sleeper Sullivan has to say, too, as he’s on Twitter!

Sources (click on the source to reach the page): 

Baseball-Reference.com Sleeper Sullivan page

Baseball-Reference.com Bullpen page on Sleeper Sullivan

Baseball-Reference.com minor league page for Sleeper Sullivan

Sleeper Sullivan’s Find A Grave memorial page

Feel free to leave a comment, or e-mail P.J. at hoohaablog [at] gmail.com. This entry is also a part of the HooHaa 9 project.

Filed Under: Baseball, My world Tagged With: baseball, baseball history, baseball in the 1800s, baseball research, baseball-reference, baseball-reference.com, buffalo bisons, louisville eclipse, old iron hands, sleeper sullivan, st. louis brown stockings, st. louis maroons, thomas jefferson sullivan

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